10 Best Korean Dramas to Watch on HiTV Right Now

Korean dramas have taken the world by storm, and HiTV's library is one of the best places to discover them — whether you're a first-timer looking for a starting point or a veteran fan hunting for something new. This list covers romance, thriller, fantasy, action and slice-of-life genres, so there's something here for every taste.

We've given each drama a summary, a note on who it's best for, and a pointer to what makes it unmissable.

1. Queen of Tears (2024)

Genre: Romance, Drama | Episodes: 16 | Rating: 9.2/10

Queen of Tears is arguably the finest Korean romance drama ever produced. Kim Soo-hyun and Kim Ji-won play a married couple from Korea's most powerful family — a union built on convenience that has quietly decayed over years. When the wife is diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour, they find themselves rediscovering why they fell in love in the first place.

What makes it unmissable is the writing. Every episode raises the emotional stakes without resorting to cheap manipulation, and the chemistry between the leads is electric even when they're at their most distant. The finale became one of the most-discussed endings in K-drama history. A word of warning: you will cry, probably multiple times.

The show also has one of the best ensemble casts in recent memory — the eccentric in-laws and supporting family members get their own arcs that are fully as compelling as the central romance.

Best for: Romance fans, viewers who loved Crash Landing on You

2. Moving (2022)

Genre: Action, Superhero, Family | Episodes: 20 | Rating: 9.0/10

Moving was Disney+'s first major Korean original, and it surpassed every expectation. Three families with secret superhuman abilities try to live normal lives while a shadowy government programme closes in. The show weaves together three timelines — the parents' Cold War-era past, the children's present-day high school life, and threads of a converging crisis — with a structural confidence that most Hollywood productions could learn from.

The action sequences are jaw-dropping even on a phone screen. But what elevates Moving above pure spectacle is its emotional core: the choices parents make to protect their children, and the cost of keeping extraordinary secrets inside ordinary families.

The first episode is deliberately slow — the superhero elements are introduced with restraint to make you care about the people before they start flying. Stick with it. By episode three, you won't be able to stop.

Best for: Action fans, viewers who enjoy slow-burn mysteries, families

3. The Glory (2022–2023)

Genre: Revenge Thriller | Episodes: 16 | Rating: 8.9/10

Song Hye-kyo plays a woman who spent eighteen years in quiet, methodical preparation to destroy the school bullies who left her permanently scarred — physically and psychologically — as a teenager. She becomes the teacher of their children, ingratiates herself into their social circles, and executes a revenge plan of extraordinary patience and precision.

The Glory is cold, beautifully paced and uncomfortably believable. It doesn't glamorise revenge; it interrogates what obsession like this costs the person carrying it. Song Hye-kyo has never been better — she plays the character with an stillness that makes every small moment feel seismic. The villain ensemble is also exceptional, led by Lim Ji-yeon in a performance so committed it inspired genuine public discussion in Korea.

The first eight episodes (Part One) are some of the best-paced television ever produced in Korea. Part Two delivers on the setup.

Best for: Thriller fans, viewers who loved Vincenzo

4. Goblin: The Lonely and Great God (2016–2017)

Genre: Fantasy Romance | Episodes: 16 | Rating: 8.7/10

No list of essential K-dramas is complete without Goblin. Gong Yoo plays an immortal general cursed to wander the earth until a human bride pulls the sword embedded in his chest — but doing so will end his immortal life. The love story that forms between the Goblin and the girl he's been waiting centuries for is funny, heartbreaking and achingly beautiful.

Goblin essentially defined the modern K-drama aesthetic: sweeping orchestral OSTs, cinematic visuals, genuinely devastating emotional moments placed inside scenes of absurd comedy. It set a visual standard that dramas are still measured against nearly a decade later.

Even for viewers who don't usually watch fantasy, the human story at the centre is grounded and emotionally coherent. If you watch only one drama from this list first, make it Goblin.

Best for: Anyone new to K-dramas, fantasy romance fans

5. Lovely Runner (2024)

Genre: Romance, Time Travel | Episodes: 16 | Rating: 9.1/10

A devoted fan of a K-pop idol wakes up in the past, living alongside him during his teenage years, with knowledge that he will die young — and a determination to prevent it. What could easily have been a predictable fan-fiction premise becomes a deeply layered exploration of grief, sacrifice, and what it truly means to save someone who doesn't know they need saving.

Byeon Woo-seok's performance is the kind that makes careers: charming, funny and quietly devastating in equal measure. Kim Hye-yoon matches him completely. The OST is relentless in the best possible way — you will hear it everywhere for weeks after finishing. HiTV has it in full HD with complete English subtitle tracks.

Best for: Romance fans, viewers who enjoy time-travel stories

6. Vincenzo (2021)

Genre: Dark Comedy, Crime | Episodes: 20 | Rating: 8.8/10

Song Joong-ki plays Vincenzo Cassano — a Korean-Italian mafia consigliere who returns to Seoul to retrieve gold hidden beneath a shabby commercial building and finds himself accidentally defending its eccentric tenants from a ruthless mega-corporation.

The tonal balancing act is extraordinary. One scene is broad physical comedy; the next is genuinely menacing; the next is a courtroom thriller. Vincenzo manages all three simultaneously without ever feeling incoherent. The villain, played by Ok Taecyeon, is one of the most entertaining antagonists in Korean television history — cheerfully amoral in a way that becomes more unsettling the longer the show runs.

The finale's catharsis is deeply satisfying. Vincenzo gives his enemies exactly what they deserve, and watching it unfold is a pleasure.

Best for: Fans of crime dramas and dark comedy

7. Reply 1988 (2015–2016)

Genre: Slice of Life, Coming of Age | Episodes: 20 | Rating: 9.1/10

Set in a narrow Seoul alley in 1988, Reply 1988 follows five families over the course of a single year — their children growing up, falling in love gradually and navigating the small daily crises of ordinary life. There are no chaebols, no secret identities, no terminal diagnoses. Just people being human together.

It is the warmest television you will ever watch. The ensemble cast — built almost entirely from actors who weren't household names at the time — performs with a natural ease that makes them feel like a family you actually know. The period detail is meticulous and nostalgic even for viewers who didn't grow up in 1980s Korea. The slow-burn central romance (who does the female lead end up with?) sparked a fan debate that lasted years and still comes up in K-drama discussions today.

Multiple rewatches are essentially mandatory.

Best for: Slice-of-life fans, anyone who misses simpler times

8. My Mister (2018)

Genre: Drama, Healing | Episodes: 16 | Rating: 9.1/10

A lonely middle-aged engineer whose career, marriage and family relationships are all quietly falling apart. A young woman carrying debt she inherited, working multiple jobs with a permanent scowl and nothing to lose. They are forced together by circumstance and form a bond built not on romance but on mutual recognition — two people who see each other clearly and don't look away.

My Mister is slow and quiet and it will sneak up on you completely. IU (Lee Ji-eun) gives the best performance of her career, all watchfulness and suppressed pain. Lee Sun-kyun, best known internationally for Parasite, is equally extraordinary — his face does more storytelling than most actors manage with full dialogue.

This is the drama people recommend when someone says they want something that feels genuinely meaningful rather than entertaining. It will change the way you think about loneliness.

Best for: Viewers who want emotional depth, IU or Lee Sun-kyun fans

9. Crash Course in Romance (2023)

Genre: Romantic Comedy, Family | Episodes: 16 | Rating: 8.5/10

A widowed side-dish shop owner becomes entangled with the nation's most famous private tutor when her teenage son enrolls in his high-pressure exam prep class. Set inside South Korea's intense cram-school culture — a world where students study sixteen hours a day and parents spend enormous sums for a competitive edge — the show uses its setting to make sharper points about ambition, class and what parents sacrifice for children.

The central romance is one of the most charming in recent K-drama history. Jung Kyung-ho and Jeon Do-yeon have effortless chemistry, and the comedy is genuinely funny rather than just sitcom-broad. The teenage supporting cast carries their own storylines with surprising weight.

Best for: Rom-com fans, parents, viewers interested in Korean society

10. Marry My Husband (2024)

Genre: Romance, Revenge, Fantasy | Episodes: 16 | Rating: 8.6/10

A woman dying of terminal cancer discovers her husband has been cheating on her with her best friend — and then wakes up ten years in the past. Instead of trying to fix her marriage or simply avoid her original fate, she decides to engineer events so that her cheating husband ends up with her scheming best friend, freeing herself to build a completely different life.

It sounds absurd, and it is, gloriously so. Park Min-young plays the lead with a barely-concealed glee that makes every revenge scheme deeply satisfying. The wish-fulfilment is earned rather than cheap because the show takes real time to show us what the original life cost her. Based on a popular webtoon, it's one of the most consistently binge-worthy shows of 2024.

Best for: Romance fans, viewers who enjoy webtoon adaptations

How to Find These Dramas on HiTV

All ten are available on HiTV with multiple subtitle options. Here's the quickest way to find them:

• Use the Search bar and type the drama title directly.
• Browse Trending for the most-watched titles this week.
• Go to the Genre section and select Romance, Thriller or Fantasy.
• Tap the + My List button on any title to save it and jump back later.

If you haven't downloaded HiTV yet, head to the download page and you can be watching within two minutes.

A Note for First-Time K-Drama Viewers

K-dramas reward patient viewers. Most of the best ones — Reply 1988, My Mister, Goblin — start quietly and build into something unforgettable. The pacing is different from Western TV: episodes are longer, emotional payoffs take more time to arrive, and the shows are designed to be watched in their entirety rather than dipped in and out of.

Give each show at least three episodes before deciding whether it's for you. And once you've worked through these ten, there are hundreds more waiting.